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“Um… no. No thanks.” She pushed her hair behind her ear, only for it to fall back. And that was when I saw it — a faint shadow on her cheekbone.

A bruise.

My chest tightened. “What happened to your face?”

Her cheeks flushed. She immediately let her hair fall forward like a curtain. “Nothing.”

“It doesn’t look like nothing.”

“Well I don’t know what to tell you.”

“Is it from the monster?”

“Um. Yeah. Most likely.”

She was lying.

I knew she was lying.

Something about the way her eyes darted — the way herfingers curled in her sleeves — told me she was hiding something.

“Seph?” I asked quietly. “If someone is hurting you I need to know. Tell me.”

“Kieran.” Her voice was quiet, warning. “Please don’t.”

“Don’t what?” I stepped closer, heat crawling up my spine. “Don’t notice when you walk into my room looking like someone took a swing at you? Don’t ask who the fuck touched you?”

Her breath hitched, but she didn’t look at me.

I forced myself to exhale slowly.

Not to scare her.

Not to shake her more than she already was.

“Seph,” I said again, softer but still rough around the edges. “I’m not trying to interrogate you. I just—”

I bit the inside of my cheek, jaw clenching.

“—I need the truth. Not because I want to control you. Because I really do give a damn.”

She still didn’t answer.

Instead:

“So… have you been here? The whole time?” she asked abruptly, like she needed to change the subject. Hard.

Suspicion prickled the back of my neck.

“No. I came here about a year and a half ago.”

“Oh.” She nodded, eyes tracing the edge of the coffee table. “And before?”

“I was… I was in the city. In Edgewater.”

Her voice lowered. Careful. Too careful.

“With Sable?”